Jfolin  ^ ^ 

.JAPAN 


Successes  and  Opportunities 
in  Evangelizing  the  World 


Japan 

Rev.  DAVID  S.  SPENCER 

Tokyo,  Japan 


THE  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY  OP  THE 
METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
RINDGE  LITERATURE  DEPARTMENT 
150  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


Successes  and  Opportunities  in 
Japan 

REV.  DAVID  S.  SPENCER 

The  first  Protestant  missionaries  entered  Japan  in 
1859.  Their  first  convert  received  baptism  in  October, 
1864,  but  so  hostile  was  the  government  to  the  foreigner 
and  his  hated  yasu-kyo  that  up  to  1873  but  eleven  J ap- 
anese  had  received  baptism  into  the  Protestant  faith. 

These  were  times  of  suspicion  and  dark  deeds.  Notice 
boards  prohibiting  faith  in  Christianity  and  offering  re- 
wards for  exposing  native  believers  were  posted  by  the 
government  in  public  places.  For  the  missionary  to 
leave  his  home  at  night  was  positively  unsafe.  While 
policemen  guarded  his  person  and  property,  because  of 
the  government’s  treaty  obligations,  her  secret  detec- 
tives dogged  his  footsteps.  If  the  common  people  were 
inclined  to  receive  the  foreigner,  his  religion,  his  schools, 
the  attitude  of  their  leaders  forbade  it.  It  needed  a 
dozen  years  to  allay  suspicion,  to  show  the  difference 
between  Protestantism  and  Romanism,  and  to  prepare 
the  way  for  any  direct  work. 

These  are  briefly  the  conditions  our  heroic  pioneer 
missionaries  met  when  they  organized  our  Methodist 
Episcopal  Mission,  August  8, 1873.  Without  a dwelling 
house,  a church,  or  a native  convert ; with  no  knowledge 
of  the  language,  no  Christian  literature,  no  helps  of  any 
kind ; but  with  God  above,  the  love  of  Christ  in  their 
hearts,  a praying  Church  behind  them,  and  a handful  of 
sympathetic  missionaries  like  themselves  about  them, 
barehanded  they  began  to  lay  the  foundations  of  our 
Church  in  that  land. 


2 


Successes  of  Thirty  Years 

What  are  the  successes  of  thirty  years  of  toil  ? We 
now  have  60  native  ordained  ministers,  trained  in  our 
schools,  loyal  to  our  cause,  earnest,  intelligent,  self-sac- 
rificing, able  to  double  or  quadruple  their  income  any 
day  by  taking  secular  work  or  government  positions,  as 
preachers  and  evangelists  second  to  none  in  any  Church. 
We  have  34  undergraduate  men  coming  on  to  help 
them.  We  have  53  Bible  women  who  labor  for  the  sav- 
ing of  the  women  of  Japan.  There  are  77  church  build- 
ings which  invite  our  people  to  worship,  and  we  regu- 
larly preach  the  Gospel  in  132  places.  God  has  given  us 
7,000  Church  members.  We  gather  7,000  children  in  145 
Sunday  schools,  and  those  children  are  the  hope  of  the 
Church.  Our  boarding  schools  number  11,  with  1,700 
young  men  and  women  in  them,  about  80  per  cent  of 
whom  become  Christians  before  they  leave  our  halls, 
and  already  the  children  of  our  graduates  are  coming 
back  to  our  schools.  Our  Publishing  House  last  year 
sent  out  700,000  volumes  of  books  and  tracts,  or  10,000,000 
pages  of  Christian  literature  all  over  the  land.  We  have 
seven  self-supporting  churches,  and  last  year  our  people 
gave  4.30  yen  [|2.15]  a member  on  self-support,  which, 
considering  the  circumstances  of  the  givers,  is  not  ex- 
celled by  the  Methodists  of  these  United  States.  While 
Methodism  entered  the  field  the  last  of  the  five  largest 
families  of  Protestantism,  it  leads  them  all  in  self-sup- 
port and  in  membership. 

The  Broader  Influence  of  Christianity 

This  is  a very  statistical  putting  of  our  success  as  a 
Church,  but  it  by  no  means  tells  all  the  truth.  The 
broader  infiuences  of  Christian  civilization  upon  the 
Japanese  nation,  in  which  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  borne  a worthy  part,  must  never  be  forgot- 
ten. Instead  of  the  notice  boards  which  in  the  begin- 
ning forbade  the  Japanese  to  believe  in  Christianity,  the 
3 


28th  article  of  the  national  constitution  now  guarantees 
to  every  J apanese  subject  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  of 
religious  belief.  Then  the  Christian  religion  was  a 
hated  and  condemned  foreign  creed,  an  alien,  and  illegal ; 
now  Christianity  has  the  same  legal  status  as  Buddhism, 
and  is  protecteil  by  the  highest  law  of  the  empire. 

Church  Property  and  Mission  Schools 

For  long  years  the  question  of  the  Church’s  property 
in  Japan  was  one  of  serious  concern,  as  there  were  no 
provisions  by  which  a satisfactory  title  to  such  property 
could  be  had  in  the  name  of  the  Church,  or  of  a foreign 
person,  company,  or  corporation ; now  the  Church  prop- 
erty may  be  held  under  legal  provisions  as  safe  aa  the 
empire  itself. 

Our  mission  schools  have  long  labored  under  great 
embarrassment,  partly  because  they  were  Christian, 
partly  because  they  were  private  schools  rather  than  a 
part  of  the  government  school  system  ; but  recently  the 
chief  hindrances  have  been  removed  and  our  schools 
cannot  now  provide  for  all  who  seek  admission. 

Confidence  Restored 

Suspicion  has  given  place  to  confidence,  and  it  has 
come  to  pass  that  the  men  most  largely  trusted  are  the 
Christian  men.  The  President  in  the  lower  house  in  the 
Diet,  thrice  chosen,  is  a Christian  man,  and  a dozen  or 
fifteen  of  its  most  influential  members  are  well-known 
followers  of  Christ.  This  is  about  fifty  times  the  due 
representation  of  the  Christians  proportionate  to  num- 
bers. But  we  now  have  Christian  ministers  in  the  Cab- 
inet, Christian  admirals  in  the  navy,  Christian  generals 
in  the  army,  Christian  justices  upon  the  Supreme  bench, 
Christian  men  heading  important  commercial  enter- 
prises, and  we  ought  to  thank  God  that  the  profession 
of  Christianity  is  no  longer  a bar  to  a man’s  attainment 
of  the  highest  positions  in  the  empire. 

4 


Humanitarian  Institutions 

The  followers  of  Buddha  and  Confucius  mumbled 
pretty  ethical  phrases  about  kindness  and  charity  and 
left  the  suffering  to  bear  their  sorrows  as  best  they 
might ; but  the  Christians  are  dotting  the  land  with  hos- 
pitals, orphanages,  asylums,  homes  for  the  friendless 
and  for  ex-convicts,  and  the  tears  of  joy  and  gratitude 
that  flow  from  the  relieved  are  as  incense  wafted  to 
heaven.  Perhaps  in  nothing  has  Christianity  manifested 
its  power  over  the  fiery  Japanese  spirit  more  completely 
than  when  it  has  tamed  the  samurai  and  sent  him  out  as 
a good  Samaritan  to  establish  humanitarian  institutions. 

Elevation  of  "Woman 

Woman,  too,  has  felt  mightily  the  touch  of  Christian 
uplift.  Confucius  had  no  place  for  her.  From  many 
Buddhist  temples  and  sacred  mountains  she  is  excluded. 
She  could  claim  no  legal  standing,  and  was  a mere  chat- 
tel to  be  disposed  of  as  caprice  might  dictate.  But 
Christianity  has  made  concubinage  a disgrace ; the  civil 
code,  based  upon  the  Code  Napoleon,  or  Christian  law, 
gives  to  woman  her  legal  status,  guards  her  rights  of 
person  and  property,  and  makes  possible  her  independent 
existence. 

The  hardest  blow  yet  struck  against  the  damnable 
system  of  licensed  prostitution,  the  curse  of  Japan,  was 
struck  by  a Christian  missionary,  a Methodist,  and  if 
the  Christians  be  supported  in  their  effort  I undertake  to 
say  that  the  day  is  not  distant  when  they  will  close 
every  brothel  in  the  land. 

Developing  Qifistian  Sentiment 

But  the  case  does  not  rest  here.  The  influence  of 
Christian  sentiment  in  society  has  made  a difference  in 
the  dealings  of  man  with  man.  Not  a judge  upon  the 
bench  but  has  felt  his  moral  backbone  stiffen  by  the 
5 


presence  of  Christian  sentiment  among  the  people  and 
even  in  the  press. 

Japan  has  recently  set  the  world  an  example  by  im- 
prisoning more  than  one  hundred  of  her  leading  citi- 
zens, some  of  them  men  occupying  high  positions  in  her 
educational  system,  because  they  were  found  guilty  of 
accepting  petty  bribes  from  the  publishers  of  text-books 
as  payment  for  their  favorable  opinions  on  those  books. 
While  American  cities  sit  complacently  to  watch  their 
politicians  steal,  through  the  exploiting  of  more  than 
one  franchise,  the  city  of  Tokyo  tries,  convicts,  and  im- 
prisons some  of  her  leading  ofiScials  because  they  cheated 
in  the  quality  of  iron  pipes  put  into  her  water  system. 

1 do  not  pretend  to  assert  that  Japanese  civilization  is 
morally  equal  to  that  of  America  at  all  points,  not  by 
any  means,  nor  would  I have  you  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that  the  missionaries  to  that  country  have  not  been 
asleep  for  thirty  years.  No  statistics  can  picture  to  the 
mind  the  widespread  influence  of  Christian  sentiment 
already  manifest  in  this  land  so  recently  heathen,  and 
this  influence  is  large  and  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
numbers  of  those  enrolled  as  Christians. 

Revision  of  Treaties  and  Results 

The  revision  of  the  treaties  lifted  from  Japan  a burden 
which  was  fast  coming  to  be  unbearable.  This  is  the 
political  side  of  the  matter.  From  the  Church’s  stand- 
point it  burst  from  the  missionary  his  traveling  pass- 
port fetters  and  set  him  free  to  roam  at  will  up  and 
down  the  empire,  preaching  Jesus  and  the  resurrection, 
it  changed  the  feelings  of  the  government  and  people 
toward  the  foreigner  and  his  creed  ; it  stirred  the  native 
evangelist  with  a desire  to  see  the  people  converted ; it 
gave  the  patriot  an  additional  reason  for  wishing  to  make 
his  country  worthy  to  march  with  the  Christian  nations 
of  the  Occident,  and  thus  it  threw  wide  open  the  doors  for 
Christian  propagandism.  Then  came  the  Anglo- J apanese 
6 


Alliance,  an  event  which  has  imposed  upon  Japan  still 
greater  obligations  and  inducements  to  measure  up  to 
her  best  in  every  way. 

Failure  of  the  Moral  System 

And  this  has  apparently  led  to  another  line  of  thought. 
From  the  early  years  of  the  Meiji  era  Japan  had  de- 
pended upon  general  education  to  solve  her  difficulties 
and  lift  her  iuto  a stable  national  life.  In  pursuance  of 
this  policy  she  has  developed  her  school  system  to  a 
state  of  great  efficiency.  With  vehement  determination 
religion  has  been  divorced  from  her  schools.  But  it  be- 
came clear  “ that  education  pure  and  simple  had  not 
bettered  the  morals  of  Japan”  and  this  “led  the  em- 
peror in  1890  to  issue  his  Imperial  Rescript  on  Morals 
in  Education.  But  as  the  rescript  supplies  no  power  to 
live  the  life  it  recommends,  it  becomes  only  a moral- 
ization.”  The  young  men  of  the  government  schools 
have  become  skeptical  to  an  alarming  extent.  Dis- 
gusted with  the  general  and  moral  degradation  of  the 
priesthood,  cut  loose  from  the  religion  of  their  fathers 
and  thrust  into  social,  political,  industrial,  and  com- 
mercial conditions,  all  new  to  them,  these  young  men 
are  religiously  and  morally  adrift.  The  waves  of  skep- 
ticism, rationalism,  and  agnosticism  have  been  rolling 
over  Japan,  and  by  many  leading’  men  this  failure  of 
their  moral  system  is  keenly  felt  anf.  deeply  lamented. 
Of  the  students  in  Japanese  colleges  but  one  in  seventy 
is  a Chiistian  communicant ; of  the  colleges  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  one  out  of  every  two  is  a 
communicant. 

NctaMc  Witnesses 

Hence  Baron  Maejima,  on  ex-Cabinet  officer,  has  re- 
cently said : “I  firmly  believe  we  must  have  religion  as 
the  basis  of  our  national  and  personal  welfare.  No 
matter  how  large  an  army  or  navy  we  may  have,  unless 
we  have  righteousness  at  the  foundation  of  our  national 
7 


existence  we  shall  fall  short  of  the  highest  success.  1 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  we  must  rely  upon  religion 
for  our  highest  welfare.  And  when  I look  about  me  to 
see  what  religion  we  may  best  rely  upon,  I am  convinced 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the  most  full  of  strength 
and  promise  for  the  nation.” 

Count  Okuma,  ex-Premier,  laments  the  loss  of  moral 
fiber  and  says:  “The  efforts  which  the  Christians  are 
making  to  supply  to  the  country  a high  standard  of  con- 
duct are  welcomed  by  all  right-thinking  people.  As 
you  read  your  Bible  you  may  think  it  is  antiquated,  out 
of  date.  The  words  it  contains  may  so  appear,  but  the 
noble  life  which  it  holds  up  to  admiration  is  something 
that  will  never  be  out  of  date,  however  much  the  world 
may  progress.  Live  and  preach  this  life  and  you  will 
supply  to  the  nation  just  what  it  needs  at  the  present 
juncture.” 

The  Churches  Opportunity 

This  is  the  Church’s  opportunity  in  Japan.  Now, 
while  her  leading  men  stand  favorable  to  the  inculcation 
of  Christian  principles,  while  the  minds  are  open  to  re- 
ceive the  truth ; now,  when  God  has,  through  a vic- 
torious war,  through  improved  international  relations, 
and  through  the  failure  of  their  moral  system,  flung 
wide  open  the  doors,  this  is  the  Church’s  supreme  op- 
portunity. 

We  should  seize  this  opportunity  first  through  in- 
creased direct  evangelistic  work.  This  is  the  Church’s 
first  and  greatest  business,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the 
47,000,000  of  Japan,  and  to  this  supreme  duty  all  other 
agencies  should  be  subordinated.  To  preach  that  Gos- 
pel in  the  language  of  the  people  is  the  missionary’s 
highest  joy.  But  to  do  this  we  must  have  more  men 
and  money. 

Our  present  force  all  over  the  field  is  working  to  the 
danger  point.  Our  Mission  has  not  been  so  depleted 
in  ten  years  as  at  present.  One  of  our  old  stations, 
8 


Nagoya,  fourth  city  in  the  empire,  has  stood  five  years 
without  an  American  male  missionary.  The  first  and 
greatest  need  is  for  young  men,  the  best  from  the 
schools,  who  shall  take  the  field,  acquire  the  language, 
and  be  ready  for  leadership  to  take  the  places  of  the  fall- 
ing pioneers.  Then  we  need  money  for  native  preach- 
ers, not  a sudden  large  increase  so  as  to  demoralize 
self-support,  but  money  especially  for  new  work.  Millions 
upon  millions  of  the  people  have  never  heard  of  Christ. 
Their  minds  are  open.  They  await  something  new.  Of 
religion  they  have  enough,  but  the  Gospel  famine  is 
something  awful  to  behold.  O brothers,  why  may  not 
Japan  have  the  Gospel  now  ? Is  this  excessive  asking 
for  a land  where  only  one  in  1,000  of  the  population  is 
a Church  member,  where  the  heathen  temples  still  out- 
number the  Protestant  communicants  ? and  where  the 
people  crowd  about  us  at  the  rate  of  300  per  square 
mile,  while  the  United  States  has  but  26  and  China  96  to 
the  square  mile  ? 


Christian  Schools 

We  should  seize  this  opportunity  through  Chris- 
tian schools.  These  schools  from  the  first  have  been 
both  the  entering  wedge  and  a source  of  strength.  The 
Japanese  are  a reading  people.  Eighty-one  and  one 
half  per  cent  of  the  school  population  are  actually  in 
the  schools.  The  daily  papers  from  the  morning  press 
fall  like  snowfiakes  over  the  land.  The  selection  of 
books  found  upon  the  shelves  of  book  stores  in  Tokyo 
compares  favorably  with  those  of  London,  Paris,  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  or  even  Boston.  The  commercial 
value  of  the  English  language  is  known,  and  it  is  a re- 
quired study  in  the  schools  of  the  country,  where  the 
children  are  learning  to  think  in  English.  It  is  now 
proposed  that  the  children  in  primary  schools  shall  be 
taught  to  Romanize  their  own  language  in  both  Roman 
and  Italic  forms.  Even  the  jinrikisha  coolies  often 
9 


spend  their  waiting  moments  in  studying  an  English 
reader.  But  the  government  schools  are  non-religious, 
agnostic,  and  often  anti-Christian. 

Reason  for  Christian  Schools 

We  must  have  the  Christian  schools  for  our  Christian 
constituency,  for  the  preparation  of  our  ministry,  and 
for  the  many  who  choose  to  commit  their  sons  and  daugh- 
ters to  Christian  rather  than  to  government  schools  of 
skepticism  and  loose  morals.  Yet  not  one  of  our  eleven 
schools  but  needs  immediate  financial  help.  For  years 
the  Church’s  gifts  have  been  so  meager  that  we  could 
neither  rear  new  buildings  nor  repair  the  old.  Our  col- 
lege building,  wrecked  by  the  great  earthquake  of  1894, 
has  never  yet  been  replaced.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  put  millions  into  the  great  Church  schools 
at  home,  and  we  are  glad.  If  we  had  $20,000  for 
Aoyama  we  could  replace  our  buildings  and  make  room 
for  students  enough  to  render  the  school  self-sup- 
porting. 

And  the  results  justify  the  expenditure.  Our  grad- 
uates hold  high  positions  in  Church  and  State,  man- 
age the  great  commercial  companies,  and  serve  in  posi- 
tions of  highest  trust  at  home  and  abroad.  An  Aoyama 
man  won  honors  in  English  Literature  this  year  at  the 
Chicago  University.  An  Aoyama  and  later  a Syracuse 
man  heads  the  banking  system  of  Korea.  These  are 
Christian  men,  and  with  proper  support  we  can  con- 
tinue to  fill  posts  of  honor  and  power  with  Christian 
mttti  and  women  who  cannot  be  bought. 

A Christian  Press 

We  must  seize  this  opportunity  through  a Christian 
press.  Here  Methodism  has  unique  opportunities  in 
Japan.  Not  only  does  the  national  thirst  for  reading 
urge  us  on,  but  other  Protestant  denominations,  recog- 
nizing us  as  having  a sort  of  right  of  way  through 
priority  in  opening  this  branch  of  work,  patronize  our 
10 


press  and  deal  largely  through  our  Publishing  Bouse. 
The  Sunday  school  literature  for  these  Churches  is  fur- 
nished by  us,  and  we  are  printing  an  edition  of  the 
Union  Hymnal  for  all  Protestantism.  Many  govern- 
ment offices  and  libraries  intrust  us  with  large  orders. 
But  we  are  not  keeping  up  with  the  demand,  and  can- 
not. Mr.  Cowen,  our  hard-working  Agent,  is  seriously 
overtaxed.  Our  present  plant  is  quite  inadequate.  We 
need  better  workmen,  better  machinery,  better  build- 
ings. One  native  church,  seeing  the  need,  has  raised 
10,000  yen  toward  a building  for  its  use  and  Publishing 
House  combined,  a building  which  shall  be  to  all  Jap- 
anese Methodism  what  the  Methodist  Book  Concern  in 
New  York  was  to  early  American  Methodism.  We  need 
$25,000  at  once  to  enable  us  to  hold  the  position  already 
won.  If  we  do  not  enlarge,  our  co-laborers  of  other 
Churches  will  feel  compelled  to  occupy  the  ground. 
Must  we  lose  this  golden  opportunity,  this  chance  to 
supply  47,000,000  with  Christian  literature  ? Not  unless 
Methodism  has  lost  her  hold  on  God. 

Give  us  a united  Methodism  for  Japan ; not  seven 
sickly  theological  schools,  but  one  good  one;  not  a half- 
dozen  sickly  colleges,  but  one  good  one,  with  feeders 
thereto;  not  two  or  three  attempts  at  publishing  doomed 
to  failure  from  the  start,  but  one  powerful  press  run  for 
Christ  and  his  kingdom. 

Stop  playing  with  the  question  of  episcopal  supervis- 
ion of  our  foreign  fields,  and  give  us  one  of  our  best 
general  superintendents  for  Japan  and  Korea,  with 
episcopal  residence  for  four  years  at  a time  in  Tokyo, 
and  others  for  China— iarge,  princely  men,  prophets, 
men  of  faith,  and  help  us  to  capture  whole  empires  for 
Christ. 

Japan  and  the  Orient 

In  saving  Japan  you  save  the  Orient.  Japan  is  al- 
ready in  practical  control  of  Korea.  She  owns  strategic 
railroads,  telegraph  lines,  banks,  and  large  commercial 

11 


interests.  J apan  is  sending  hundreds  of  her  picked  men 
into  China.  They  are  reorganizing  her  army,  are  advis- 
ers to  her  government,  are  police  organizers  and  teach- 
ers, are  putting  her  schools  into  shape,  are  heads  of 
business  enterprises,  are  drafting  her  new  code  of  civil 
law,  are  managing  her  Imperial  University.  Little  Japan 
leading  old  China ! Why,  2,000  Chinese  students  are  in 
the  schools  of  Tokyo,  and  among  them  are  the  sons  of 
Chinese  nobles;  and  of  these  students  more  than  100  are 
Chinese  girls.  Over  100  Chinese  non-commissioned  mil- 
itary officers  are  in  Japanese  barracks  getting  their 
training  for  war.  And  if  these  Chinese  students  and 
these  Japanese  can  be  Christianized,  what  does  this 
mean  to  the  Orient?  Remember  the  trumpet  call  of 
Bishop  Moore ; “ As  Japan  goes,  so  goes  the  Orient.” 

Japan  and  Russia 

I would  help  Japan  save  China.  I would  help  her 
build  a wall  so  high  and  strong  that  the  Russian  bear 
could  neither  scale  it  nor  crawl  through  it,  for  be  it 
known  unto  you  that  wherever  that  bear  places  his  paw 
there  is  an  end  to  Protestant  missions  and  ultimately  to 
American  commerce. 

O,  that  the  Church  of  God  would  grasp  her  oppor- 
tunity in  the  Orient ! 

“ What  have  I thought  of  His  work  so  dear? 

What  have  I planned  for  his  kingdom  here  ? 

What  have  I given  of  the  wealth  he  gave  ? 

What  have  I learned  of  his  power  to  save  ? 

What  have  I done  that  the  world  may  see 

What  Jesus  did  when  he  died  for  me  ?” 

50  Cents  per  100  Copies 

Series  op  1904 


12 


